Sorry, gender cannot be reduced to biological sex

Everyone knows that gender is the same as biological sex, right? Actually, as soon as you start thinking about what is going on in the real world out there, it becomes obvious that it cannot be that simple.

By all means, the concept of biological sex does make sense in some instances, if you are a natural scientist or a gynecologist, but a soon as you start talking about gender roles, gender expression and gender identity, it becomes clear that gender is much more than a biological phenomenon.

In a new blog post I use the concept of “motherhood” to document how languages are flexible when it comes to handling the biological, cultural and social. Sure, you can define “mother” as someone who has given birth to a child, but we all know that there are women out there who are infertile, but who  nevertheless are mothers, as in, for instance,  adoptive mothers.

The transphobes themselves actually behave as if the term gender is equally flexible. They do not ask stranger to provide  DNA-tests or pull down their trousers before they let them into public bathrooms. They normally accept the immediate impression of what gender that person is, based on body shape, clothing and  gender expressions – as do most people.

In other words: In the real world gender is not reduced to biology.

Read my article on why gender is much more than biological sex.

Photo: sturti

Meet Blob. They have 720 sexes!

If you still believe there are only two biological sexes, you have not met Blob. 

Blob has no brain, but can nevertheless solve complex problems. They can heal themselves in two minutes if cut in half and can move around in spite of having no legs or wings.

This slime mold (physarum polycephalum) has around 720 different sexes, which – I am sure – will annoy more than a few religious fundamentalists and transphobes out there. 

The blob was named after a 1958 science-fiction horror B-movie, starring  Steve McQueen.

CNN has more.

Photo from Reuters.

There is no objectively “correct” measurement of sex.

Over at twitter Mallory Malone makes some important points about intersex athletes and the concept of biological sex (links in twitter thread):

The End Intersex Surgery thread can be found here.

Gender and transgender terminology

Reddit Science presents a useful summary of essential terms:

Sex: The classification of a person as male or female. At birth, infants are assigned a sex, usually based on the appearance of their external anatomy. (This is what is written on the birth certificate.) A person’s sex, however, is actually a combination of bodily characteristics including: chromosomes, hormones, internal and external reproductive organs, and secondary sex characteristics.

Gender Identity: A person’s internal, deeply held sense of their gender. For transgender people, their own internal gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Most people have a gender identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). For some people, their gender identity does not fit neatly into one of those two choices (see non-binary and/or genderqueer.) Unlike gender expression (see below) gender identity is not visible to others.

Transgender: (adj.) An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. People under the transgender umbrella may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms - including transgender. Many transgender people are prescribed hormones by their doctors to bring their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. Some undergo surgery as well. But not all transgender people can or will take those steps, and a transgender identity is not dependent upon physical appearance or medical procedures.

Gender Dysphoria: A mental health disorder which is characterized by transgender people feeling significant distress or functional impairment in one or more areas of their life. Not all transgender people experience gender dysphoria, and those who do do not experience necessarily experience GD permanently. Transitioning tends to reduce dysphoria.

Gender Identity Disorder: an outdated mental health disorder that was removed from the DSM when the most recent version, the DSM 5, was published.

Source for the above definitions: GLAAD Media Reference Guide

Birds with more than two male sexes

The sparrow with four sexes

This Nature article  goes deeper into the development of “morphs” of animals. Quite a few species have several variants of male (and/or female), often males that look more like females. 

Their existence was largely ignored by zoologists, as their existence threatened the colorful, aggressive and strong male vs. the bland, passive and weak female narrative. New research, however, has thrown new light upon the phenomenon.

I am not saying that gender variance in humans is caused by morphs. But the existence of morphs among birds and mammals tells us that gender is not as clear cut and binary as many believe.

The white-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis, has a mutation that leads to it having four biological sexes.

Carrie Arnold explains:

The mutation had flipped a large section of chromosome 2, leaving it unable to pair up with a partner and exchange genetic information. The more than 1,100 genes in the inversion were inherited together as part of a massive ‘supergene’ and eventually drove the evolution of two different 'morphs’ — subtypes of the bird that are coloured differently, behave differently and mate only with the opposite morph. 

Tuttle and Gonser’s leap was to show that this process is nearly identical to the early evolution of certain sex chromosomes, including the human X and Y. The researchers realized that they were effectively watching the bird evolve two sex chromosomes, on top of the two it already had….

The tan-striped birds are poor at singing, monogamous and fiercely protect their hatchlings from predators such as raccoons and snakes. The white-striped ones are aggressive, promiscuous, more cavalier about their offspring, and tuneful: 

Gonser says that they produce a more operatic refrain of oh-sweet-Canada. White-striped birds seem to mate only with tan-striped ones — a relatively unusual phenomenon called disassortative mating (see 'Opposites attract’). Tuttle became interested; why do the two morphs behave in this way?

More here.

See also my blogpost on “transgender” animals.